I’ve been keeping a food diary, and there seems to be no clear correlation with any foods I’ve been eating. But, since I have migraines pretty much non-stop, its a bit tricky to discern what’s causing what. I had a blood test, which said I had no allergies, but my doctor told me they weren’t much help. Anyway, I’ll try kicking seafood off the menu, and see what happens. Thanks for the advice.
Seafood is only one possibility. If you’re going to try diet-related control, you’d be better off using an elimination diet (google the details) - where you basically cut down to some very bland things, and see if the effect stops… then start adding things back one at a time until one thing triggers it (and then don’t eat that thing)… continue until you know all your triggers.
In your case—if you cut down to the bland diet and stay that way for a week, and you’re still getting migraines—then it wasn’t your diet.
I have seen people try this method and have the strong suspicion that in some cases, the effect stopped due to the placebo effect, because the person thought that food had something to do with it. Then the effect returned together with various foods based on random chance, and the person became forever convinced that that particular food was bad for them.
I really don’t care if its the placebo effect. If it works, then yay! I mean, I’d rather lose a type of food than be mentally crippled for the rest of my life. But I think I may agree with you on the food point. Its probably that when you cut it down to the necessary things, you’re diet gets a lot healthier. And as you add more and more food, there comes a tipping point and you get migraines again. “Oh no! I have migraines again! When did they start? About when I put Generic Food X back in. Hmm, that’s probably the case” And they never ate Generic Food X again...
Regardless, I could definitely be healthier, so I’ll give it a go.
Yes, that is a plausible pathological case. But… some people definitely have specific diet-related triggers (sulfates is a common one) and if you have those… it’s worth finding that out.
If you’re worried about false-positives—then go see a dietician to do it however the proper way is to make sure.
I’ve heard about the elimination diet a few times now, and I think I’ll get off my ass and do it. I would’ve thought though that I’d need to give it a bit longer than a week. Well, let’s see how it goes. And thanks for the advice, it’s definitely welcome.
Be warned: The elimination diet may remove joy and happiness from your life as you eliminate every single food you like. it may be worth it depending on how bad the migranes are.
I have rather unusual ability. That is, when I pull together the will power, I am able to make myself like a food. I usually don’t do this because 1) I am quite lazy by nature 2) I don’t like those types of foods in the first place. But if it turns out that I can only eat foods I dislike, I can just force myself to like them.
Even if I couldn’t it would definitely be worth it.
eventually as foods are eliminated you are left with very simple, very plain foods. i.e. plain rice. for a few weeks. if you take out:
spice
alcohol
chocolate
sugar
several oils
some beans
mushrooms, fungi
wheat
milk
meat (I think)
seafood
and more that escapes my memory
you end up with not a whole lot left… Its been many years since I had exposure to the elimination diet but it is very hard work. I have seen someone graph their migranes in relation to succeeding at the elimination diet. The elimination program they were on involved eating plain food for 10 after their last migrane and then trying a sample from a set of (20?) pill-bottles which contained one of the eliminated substances. it looked like − 5 days after they had any foods they stopped having migranes.
But as one might begin to question—what is life without chocolate, wine, beer, sugar. Their migranes were not as bad as you describe yours, but when I met them they were gradually transitioning to the opinion of accepting the occasional migrane as long as they still had a glass of wine once a week.
Wow, your friend must really love wine. I don’t drink alcohol, but is it really all that? I just assumed that most people have alcoholic beverages for the ‘buzz’/intoxication.
I just assumed that most people have alcoholic beverages for the ‘buzz’/intoxication.
That highly depends on who “most people” are. Most college students at a party drink alcohol for a very different reason than e.g. most people who go on tours of the Napa Valley.
So is the taste very different to other drinks? I mean, its such a staple in so many parts of the world, I can’t help but think its either: delicious, unique or just an easy to get intoxicant. Maybe all of the above.
Not only the taste is different to other drinks, there is a great variety of complex flavors available. Wines can be very very different from each other so that you can pick a region/style/vineyard/etc. that matches your individual taste and change it as often as you like.
A non-alcoholic comparison would probably be cheese—it also can be very different and have complex flavors. Some people don’t care and eat the yellow goo (aka American cheese, ugh), and some people do care very much.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think? As in, very cheap, common wines are considered to be as good as high quality wines by wine testers when they don’t know what it is.
The cheese example is interesting though, That’s probably the best way I’ve heard it described.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think?
No, studies have shown that people suck at placing empirical taste on a one-dimensional “cheap low-status wine—expensive high-status wine” axis. Different wines do taste very differently and it’s trivially easy to verify.
extra note, I believe the proportion of migranes was related to the amount of drinking. so drinking once a week would be minimal migranes, drinking a glass a night would be too many migranes.
I have come to the conclusion that I taste things differently to a large subset of the population. I have a very sweet tooth and am very sensitive to bitter flavours.
I don’t eat olives, most alcohol only tastes like the alcoholic aftertaste (which apparently some people don’t taste) - imagine the strongest burning taste of the purest alcohol you have tasted, some people never taste that, I taste it with nearly every alcoholic beverage. Beer is usually awfully bitter too.
The only wine I could ever bother to drink is desert wine (its very sweet) and only slowly. (or also a half shot of rum and maple syrup)
Having said all this—yes; some people love their alcoholic beverages for their flavours.
Have you checked for allergies and food sensitivities? I used to know someone who would get migraines a few days after eating seafood.
I’ve been keeping a food diary, and there seems to be no clear correlation with any foods I’ve been eating. But, since I have migraines pretty much non-stop, its a bit tricky to discern what’s causing what. I had a blood test, which said I had no allergies, but my doctor told me they weren’t much help. Anyway, I’ll try kicking seafood off the menu, and see what happens. Thanks for the advice.
Seafood is only one possibility. If you’re going to try diet-related control, you’d be better off using an elimination diet (google the details) - where you basically cut down to some very bland things, and see if the effect stops… then start adding things back one at a time until one thing triggers it (and then don’t eat that thing)… continue until you know all your triggers.
In your case—if you cut down to the bland diet and stay that way for a week, and you’re still getting migraines—then it wasn’t your diet.
I have seen people try this method and have the strong suspicion that in some cases, the effect stopped due to the placebo effect, because the person thought that food had something to do with it. Then the effect returned together with various foods based on random chance, and the person became forever convinced that that particular food was bad for them.
I really don’t care if its the placebo effect. If it works, then yay! I mean, I’d rather lose a type of food than be mentally crippled for the rest of my life. But I think I may agree with you on the food point. Its probably that when you cut it down to the necessary things, you’re diet gets a lot healthier. And as you add more and more food, there comes a tipping point and you get migraines again. “Oh no! I have migraines again! When did they start? About when I put Generic Food X back in. Hmm, that’s probably the case” And they never ate Generic Food X again...
Regardless, I could definitely be healthier, so I’ll give it a go.
Yes, that is a plausible pathological case. But… some people definitely have specific diet-related triggers (sulfates is a common one) and if you have those… it’s worth finding that out.
If you’re worried about false-positives—then go see a dietician to do it however the proper way is to make sure.
I’ve heard about the elimination diet a few times now, and I think I’ll get off my ass and do it. I would’ve thought though that I’d need to give it a bit longer than a week. Well, let’s see how it goes. And thanks for the advice, it’s definitely welcome.
Be warned: The elimination diet may remove joy and happiness from your life as you eliminate every single food you like. it may be worth it depending on how bad the migranes are.
I have rather unusual ability. That is, when I pull together the will power, I am able to make myself like a food. I usually don’t do this because 1) I am quite lazy by nature 2) I don’t like those types of foods in the first place. But if it turns out that I can only eat foods I dislike, I can just force myself to like them.
Even if I couldn’t it would definitely be worth it.
eventually as foods are eliminated you are left with very simple, very plain foods. i.e. plain rice. for a few weeks.
if you take out: spice alcohol chocolate sugar several oils some beans mushrooms, fungi wheat milk meat (I think) seafood and more that escapes my memory
you end up with not a whole lot left… Its been many years since I had exposure to the elimination diet but it is very hard work. I have seen someone graph their migranes in relation to succeeding at the elimination diet. The elimination program they were on involved eating plain food for 10 after their last migrane and then trying a sample from a set of (20?) pill-bottles which contained one of the eliminated substances. it looked like − 5 days after they had any foods they stopped having migranes.
But as one might begin to question—what is life without chocolate, wine, beer, sugar. Their migranes were not as bad as you describe yours, but when I met them they were gradually transitioning to the opinion of accepting the occasional migrane as long as they still had a glass of wine once a week.
Wow, your friend must really love wine. I don’t drink alcohol, but is it really all that? I just assumed that most people have alcoholic beverages for the ‘buzz’/intoxication.
That highly depends on who “most people” are. Most college students at a party drink alcohol for a very different reason than e.g. most people who go on tours of the Napa Valley.
So is the taste very different to other drinks? I mean, its such a staple in so many parts of the world, I can’t help but think its either: delicious, unique or just an easy to get intoxicant. Maybe all of the above.
Not only the taste is different to other drinks, there is a great variety of complex flavors available. Wines can be very very different from each other so that you can pick a region/style/vineyard/etc. that matches your individual taste and change it as often as you like.
A non-alcoholic comparison would probably be cheese—it also can be very different and have complex flavors. Some people don’t care and eat the yellow goo (aka American cheese, ugh), and some people do care very much.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think? As in, very cheap, common wines are considered to be as good as high quality wines by wine testers when they don’t know what it is.
The cheese example is interesting though, That’s probably the best way I’ve heard it described.
No, studies have shown that people suck at placing empirical taste on a one-dimensional “cheap low-status wine—expensive high-status wine” axis. Different wines do taste very differently and it’s trivially easy to verify.
Oops, sorry, I was being stupid. For some reason, I equated quality and variety. My bad.
extra note, I believe the proportion of migranes was related to the amount of drinking. so drinking once a week would be minimal migranes, drinking a glass a night would be too many migranes.
I have come to the conclusion that I taste things differently to a large subset of the population. I have a very sweet tooth and am very sensitive to bitter flavours.
I don’t eat olives, most alcohol only tastes like the alcoholic aftertaste (which apparently some people don’t taste) - imagine the strongest burning taste of the purest alcohol you have tasted, some people never taste that, I taste it with nearly every alcoholic beverage. Beer is usually awfully bitter too.
The only wine I could ever bother to drink is desert wine (its very sweet) and only slowly. (or also a half shot of rum and maple syrup)
Having said all this—yes; some people love their alcoholic beverages for their flavours.
Maybe this is a worth a separate thread...
separate thread: http://lesswrong.com/lw/m2r/lesswrong_experience_on_alcohol/